“Your mouth is hanging open,” Suzanne said beside me.
I closed it with a snap.
“Dude.” Emerson stared after him. She swung her head around to look at me. I waited, thinking she was going to offer up some profound piece of advice. All I got was: “He’s so hot.”
I snorted. “Yeah, you’ve said that before.”
“And you played him? Wow. I just wanted to drag you out of your shell. I created a monster. How did you get to be such a tramp?” She covered her mouth with her fingers in an attempt to stifle a giggle.
Rolling my eyes, I tightened my arm around her waist. “You suck drunk. C’mon. Let’s get you to the car.”
She rested her head on my shoulder as we exited the bar. “I love you, guys,” she chirped. “You’re like the best people in my life. You two and Georgia.”
I sent her a long look, wondering if tonight’s drinking binge had something to do with the phone conversation she’d had today with her mother. I’d entered the room as she was hanging up. Emerson’s complexion was usually porcelain pale. She looked like a little Irish pixie with her brilliant blue eyes, dark hair, and flawless, milky skin. But in that moment bright red flags stained her cheeks.
I didn’t know what they talked about, only that Em’s lips had looked tight at the corners. When I asked if she was okay, she had looked suddenly cheerful and quickly changed the subject.
Emerson fell like dead weight into the passenger seat of Suzanne’s car. I looked up at Suzanne over the roof. “Can you get her home all right, Suze?”
She nodded, flipping her sleek dark hair over her shoulder. “We’ll be fine.”
Emerson perked up in her seat. “Where you going?”
“Just going to talk to Reece.”
“Oh, talking,” she said, her voice heavy with exaggeration. “Is that what they’re calling it these days?”
Sighing, but with a smile, I looked back at Suzanne. “Sure you can handle her?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll tuck her in. And if that doesn’t work I can always smother her with a pillow.”
“Hear that? She wants to kill me! Don’t leave me with her!”
Rolling my eyes, I shut the door on Emerson’s still talking face.
I watched them pull out of the parking lot before heading back to the bar, pushing against the rolling exodus of people. I sidestepped a blonde shivering in her too-short miniskirt.
By the time I stood in the main room again, the place was almost empty, the footsteps of the remaining people thudding heavily over the plank flooring. Reece was easy to locate. He stood at the bar, talking to two other bartenders. They nodded, listening to him as he instructed them on something.
I observed this new side of him, seeing it now. Appreciating it. The authoritative edge to him had always been there, I just hadn’t acknowledged it. I’d seen it but hadn’t considered he might actually be in charge of the place. How did a twenty-three-year-old come to be in charge of a bar? It seemed like a big responsibility. He said it had been in his family for three generations, but where was his father? Or mother? Why weren’t they operating it?
I crossed my arms. Mostly because I didn’t know what else to do with them, but maybe because I also thought I could disguise my stained sweatshirt. I really should have considered my wardrobe tonight. A part of me must have known I could end up here.
I felt awkward standing there, shifting on my feet, waiting for him to see me. One of the bartenders, an older guy with a handlebar mustache, noticed me watching the three of them. He nodded in my direction. Reece turned and looked at me. Instantly, his expression hardened, the ease that had been there slipping away. And that hurt a little, knowing that I had done that.
Was it only the other night that he had kissed me and said those things that made me feel special? So not like a girl unaccustomed to kisses and hot boys with sexy grins. He made it natural . . . being with a guy. Being with him. He made me feel beautiful.
His mouth flattened into a thin line. He took a step toward me, stopping for a moment to speak to the other two bartenders before lifting up the bar top and crossing to where I stood.
“You came back.”
“I’m sorry.”
Whatever he expected me to say, I don’t think it was this. He blinked. “Why are you apologizing?”
“I should have said good-bye. It was rude.” I shrugged, uncomfortable beneath his intent gaze and decided to just go for honesty, no matter how much of a flake it made me sound. “I’m not familiar with the rules that go with hooking up. Sorry. I messed up.” I gazed at him, waiting.
He continued to study me. The harshness ebbed from his expression. His mouth relaxed somewhat. He looked more baffled than anything else as he stood there looking down at me like I was some manner of strange species.
“Well. I just wanted you to know that. Good night.” Turning, I walked away.
I didn’t make it five steps before his hand fell on my shoulder. I turned around.
“You didn’t mess up. I like that you don’t know what the rules are for hooking up.”
“You do?”
“Yeah. You’re not—” He paused and ran a hand over his scalp, chafing his close-cut hair. My palms tingled, remembering how soft that hair felt against my palms. “You’re different. I didn’t like waking up and finding you gone.”
I didn’t move. Didn’t speak as his admission sank in and made my face heat up.
“Oh,” I finally managed to get out past the lump in my throat. I couldn’t help wondering what could have happened if I’d stayed. If I had been there when he woke up. What would he have said? What would we have done? Would we have picked up where we left off before we fell asleep?
His hand reached out and toyed with the bottom of my sweatshirt. “I like this.”
“My sweatshirt?” I laughed nervously. “I’m wearing applesauce.” I motioned to the smear on my chest.
“It’s a good look on you.”
“Now I know you’re lying.”
“No.” He gave my sweatshirt a small tug, inexorably pulling me toward him, bit by bit, and it was like the other night again. His presence was overwhelming, the heat that emanated from him. The blue of his eyes that seemed to turn to smoke when he looked at me. I was under his spell. Maybe I had never ceased to be. I’d been spellbound since our first kiss and especially since the night I spent in his loft. Maybe this was what had brought me back here in the middle of the night. Maybe I was hoping to repeat the experience.
“I’ll never lie to you, Pepper.” That soft utterance blew through me like a sonic blast. Crazy, but I heard more than his vow to be honest. The words were full of the expectation that there would be a him and me, an us. That we were really doing this. Whatever this was.
“Hey, bro! Still crashing with you tonight?” Reece’s head snapped in the direction of the voice. I followed his gaze and spotted Logan carting a tub of empty glasses. His eyes brightened when he saw me. “Oh, hey. Pepper, right? How’s it going?” His gaze slid between me and his brother and suddenly he looked all too pleased. “See you found the brother you were really after. Too bad for me.”
Embarrassed, I mumbled a greeting and took a step back from Reece, tucking a stray hair behind my ear. His hand fell from my sweatshirt.
Reece scowled at his brother. “Yeah, after you finish busing everything to the kitchen.”
“Cool. See ya, Pepper.” With a wink, Logan headed for the kitchen.
“It’s late.” My fingers pushed at the hair that was already tucked behind my ear. “I gotta go.”
“I’ll walk you to your car.”
“Do you walk every girl that leaves this bar to her car?”
He fell in beside me. “First off, most girls don’t leave alone. They’re with a group. Secondly, you’re not every girl to me.” He paused and my chest tightened as those words sank in like ink staining my skin. “And I think you know that.”
The air rushed from my lungs. I couldn’t think of a sin
gle thing to say. We stepped outside into the chilly night and started walking across the gravel lot. The closer we moved to my car, the more I thought about the last time he’d walked me to my car. Our first kiss. And then that led to thoughts of the night in his loft, which consisted of a lot more kissing. And touching. I rubbed my suddenly perspiring palms against my thighs.
At my car, I unlocked the door. With a smile that felt strange and too tight on my face I faced him. “Thanks.”
He examined me for a long moment beneath the parking lot lights.
“So you just came here to apologize to me, Pepper? That’s all?”
I swallowed. “Yes?”
Why did the word come out like a question? And why did he look at me like he didn’t believe me?
“I thought you might have wanted to continue where we left off.” He slid his hand into his pocket and rocked back on his heels. “Pick up a few more tips maybe.”
There it was. The elephant in the room. No pretending it wasn’t there anymore.
“I think what we did was—” I stopped short of saying “enough.” Because did I really want it to be? Why not stretch this out a little longer? I’d only get better at the kissing and all the other stuff, right? Foreplay. That’s what I was after. Besides, it was weeks until Thanksgiving break and uninterrupted Hunter time. Even as a voice whispered through my head that this could get complicated, I ignored it. I wanted more. Plain and simple.
“Well, what’s left to learn?” I asked, mostly because I didn’t want to appear like an overeager puppy desperate for a treat. Even if I was.
He laughed then. The sound was low and deep and swirled through my belly like hot cider.
Fending off the delicious effect of his laughter on me, I demanded, “What?”
“Oh, there’s plenty left to learn. That question alone shows just how much you still don’t know.” He fell silent and considered me again. “I guess the question remaining is how far are you willing to go short of sleeping with me?” His mouth curved in a slow smile. “You’re still not up for that, right?”
I blinked. “No. I c-can’t. Not that.”
He chuckled softly. “Don’t look so scared. Just checking.”
My face felt like it was on fire. I shifted on my feet and dug the tip of my car key into the fleshy pad of my thumb. I moved my gaze to somewhere over his shoulder, staring blindly into the deep night. It was too mortifying. I couldn’t look him in the eyes as we discussed whether or not I wanted more lessons in foreplay from him and just how far I was willing to go.
Rather than answer him directly, I asked, “Isn’t your brother staying with you tonight?”
Yes, I wanted more. Yes, I was willing to go farther, but it didn’t seem like it would happen tonight.
“Yeah. He is. Guess our timing is off.”
I nodded, moistening my lips as I moved my gaze to his chest, to the curvy script that spelled out MULVANEY’S on his shirt. Easier than gazing into those brilliant eyes that seemed to have the power to hypnotize me.
Gravel crunched as he stepped closer. A hand dropped to my car door, partially caging me in. I followed the long stretch of his arm, scanning the inked-up skin until I was staring into his eyes again.
“Unless,” he began, “you’re inviting me back to your place.”
Holy hell. He wants to come home with me?
“You want to go to my dorm room?”
“Unless you have a roommate.” His lips quirked in that sexy half-grin. “That might make things awkward.”
“Um, I actually don’t. I have suitemates. I’m in the single. I have the room to myself.”
My words hung between us. The air crackled, alive with tension and something indefinable. And yet I recognized it. It happened around him a lot, buzzing over my skin like an electrical charge.
“That’s convenient,” he murmured.
I moistened my lips. It felt as though we had been staring at each other forever. Another second and I might splinter from all the tension.
“So.” He arched an eyebrow. “Are you inviting me?”
“Oh.” A short, nervous laugh burst from my lips. “Yes. Yeah. I guess I am.”
He smiled then, and I melted right there. I gripped the edge of my door to stop my knees from buckling.
He leaned forward, that one arm still close, partially caging me. “Okay. I’ll follow you.”
“Okay,” I repeated, grinning like a fool.
He lowered his arm from my car and walked backward, still looking at me as he moved. “Wait here. I’ll bring my Jeep around.”
“Okay,” I said again, wishing I could come up with something better to say. Something clever and flirty.
I released a shaky breath as he turned and jogged away.
Chapter 15
Dropping into the driver’s seat, I waited, watching his tall frame disappear in my rearview mirror. My fingers tapped the steering wheel anxiously. Giving my head a fierce shake, I released a little shriek inside the safety of my car, getting it out of my system. Lifting my hands, I pressed them against my flushed face.
Yanking down the visor, I stared into my eyes, the green brighter than usual, and addressed myself firmly, “All right. Pull yourself together, Pepper. You’re a big girl. You asked for this. You’re not doing anything hundreds, thousands of women aren’t doing tonight.” I was probably doing less considering I wasn’t even having sex. “No. Big. Deal.” Even as I spoke the words, I continued to shake in my seat.
The lights of Reece’s Jeep soon flashed behind me and I put the car into reverse and backed out.
He followed me out of the lot and down the strip. I cut through campus, driving between the familiar red brick buildings lining Butler, past the quiet quad with its grassy lawns and empty benches. I managed not to total my car, which was somewhat miraculous considering I couldn’t stop glancing in the rearview mirror to watch the dark shadow of Reece inside his vehicle.
We found two spots near each other in the parking lot. Taking a deep breath, I gathered my backpack from the passenger seat and climbed out, grateful that I’d at least gotten all my studying done at the Campbells’. Reece was already waiting for me, looking relaxed and at ease with a hand buried halfway in his pocket.
“Are you all right leaving the bar?” it occurred me to ask.
“I called my brother. He can close up.”
“Oh. Good.”
He fell into step beside me as we headed toward the dorm. I glanced at his bare arms. “Are you cold?”
“I’m fine.”
“It’s a short walk,” I volunteered unnecessarily. “We’re almost to the door.” Apparently nervousness made me spew gibberish.
I swiped my card and entered the dormitory. At the elevator, I pushed the UP button and sent Reece a small smile as we both stood in awkward silence. I tried to appear more confident than I felt. Fat chance. He knew what I was. What I wasn’t. I trained my gaze on the descending floor numbers, watching each one light up. Seven. Six. He knew what I didn’t know. Five. What I needed to learn. Four. Three. Everything. Two.
I quit my study of the flashing numbers as two girls spilled noisily into the building. They clearly had a few drinks in them from the way they hung on each other.
I didn’t know them, but they looked familiar. But then so did everyone else who lived in the building. I was sure we had passed each other in the halls or shared an elevator before. The blond one had maybe even loaned me a quarter in the laundry room.
Their giggles and shrill voices died when they saw me standing there with Reece. They exchanged wide-eyed looks and compressed their lips as though it was killing them to hold silent. The doors slid open with a ding and muffled whoosh. Reece waited for all three of us to step in ahead of him and I swear they tittered like thirteen-year-old girls.
Rolling my eyes, I pushed for the fifth floor, wishing we had just taken the stairs. It was habit that I avoided the stairwell this late at night. It was too dark and smelled like sweaty socks on
a good day. Plus, I just didn’t like the sense of isolation in the stairwell. Like I was inside a tomb. Small spaces and I never got on well. Too much of my childhood spent in closets and bathrooms.
When the girls got off on the third floor, they didn’t wait for the doors to close before they started whispering indiscreetly and looking back at us.
“God,” I muttered. “It’s like high school. Some things never change.”
“Some things do.” He slid me a long glance as we stepped off at my floor. “I didn’t spend the night with too many girls in high school.”
I arched an eyebrow. “No?”
He grinned. “No. That came later.”
“I bet.” I unlocked my door and moved into the pitch-black of my room, my steps automatic, moving from memory. I flipped on the lamp at my desk and dropped my bag onto the chair. The room’s adjoining door was ajar, as usual. I peeked inside the murky space. Emerson’s shape was visible beneath the covers of her bed. I could even detect her soft snores. I closed the door between our rooms (probably a first) and turned the lock.
Whenever Georgia wanted to be alone with Harris, they hung out at his place. She even spent the night there on occasion. I couldn’t help smiling at the thought of Emerson waking up to a closed door. She wouldn’t know what to think.
I faced Reece, smoothing my hands over my thighs, the soft denim somehow normalizing me. Lifting my chin, I braced myself for his first move.
Only he wasn’t even looking at me. He was studying my room, turning slowly, his gaze exploring my private sanctum like he was viewing something interesting. My bedspread with its overly large purple flowers. A poster of Mickey Mouse’s ears, just the shadow of them set against a star-speckled night. He took it all in, and so did I—seeing it through the eyes of a stranger. His eyes. My gaze skimmed the bed, the poster, the stuffed Pluto resting against my pillow that had seen me through so many years. It was a poor substitute for Purple Bear, but it was the first gift Gram had bought me so I treasured it. It was a little girl’s room, I realized. Or at least it would appear that way to him.
I searched for something good about it. Everything was tidy and organized. Textbooks neatly piled on my desk beside my laptop. No clutter. I hated having a bunch of stuff I would only have to cram into my car at the end of the year and then find a place to store while back home at Gram’s for the summer.
Foreplay: The Ivy Chronicles Page 13
